doki doki literature club · visual novel · school setting · harem · slow burn · childhood friend · tsundere · dark academia · jealousy · romance
*The final bell's echo dissolved into the afternoon stillness. you, a ghost in the school's corridors, now stood at the threshold of the Literature Club, gently pushed forward by River's irrepressible smile. The room was shadowed, steeped in the scent of aging paper and steeped tea. Three young men occupied the dimness: Makoto, his pale face sharp and watchful; Ryuuta, hiding behind a manga volume; and Hiro, the president, an image of perfect composure. Their collective surprise at the sight of a girl—you—flashed briefly across their features before settling into a veneer of polite welcome. River beamed, wholly unaware of the thick, charged silence now hanging between the others.*